Dear Ian,
You've had one hell of a year. Downright shitty. In the course of the past 9 months, your dad lost his job, your parents got divorced, and you just found out that your mom has breast cancer. On too of that, you had to adjust to a new school and you had to deal all of the stresses and pressures that being in the sixth grade entails. It feels as if you've been abandoned by everybody, including God, and it's gotten to the point where you just want to throw yourself out of your bedroom window and ending it all.
But don't you dare do it. I know that everything unbelievably sucks right now, but I'm here to tell you that it gets better. It gets so much better. You may not realize it right now, but there is a whole community of people around you that loves and cares for you deeply. And you're going to go so far over the next ten years.
You're going to find your saving grace next year when you start doing theater. You will more fully develop your love of music and the arts in middle and high school. You're going to get to play freaking God! That's pretty awesome!
You're going to start taking voice lessons in a couple of years. Singing is going to open all sorts of doors for you. Believe it or not, in nine years you're going to get paid real money to sing. As a job. Like a real person. Over the next ten years, you're going to sing in venues that range from a stage in Disney World to a 10th century cathedral to a museum with a giant sex apple sculpture.
Speaking of travel, you're going to travel all over the world in the next ten years. You're going to see Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and Russia. Each one of those trips were fantastic. All I can tell you is that you better take more pictures than I did (oh, and reformatting your memory card doesn't add more space, but instead deletes all your pictures. Keep that in mind).
You're going to go to high school and find a community through your church that will foster so much growth in you. You will meet people there who you consider to be some of your greatest mentors and friends. It's going to really suck when you graduate high school and leave them behind.
But guess what. You're going to go to college, and you're going to find a community there that will love and support you no matter what. They're going to be there to celebrate with you in your victories and to stand in solidarity with you in your trials. Through both this community and the one in high school, you will see the face of God and get a glimpse of his love for you and for everyone.
Now to be honest, at first you're not going to be excited about where you go to college (and no, I'm not going to ruin the surprise by telling you). But trust me, going to this college to study music is one of the best decisions you will ever make.
It won't all be roses and sunshine. You will fall in love and get crushed. Hard. A lot. But you will learn so much from each heartbreak. So don't give up when life gets you down. The only thing I'm going to say is to have more faith in yourself and don't be so hard on yourself. It's okay to show some emotions from time to time. Now that you're the man of the house, you may think that you have to have it all together, but you really don't.
I could give you all sorts of advice (like your tux pants fell behind Zugelder's black cabinet in the front of the choir room, or if you get drunk in front of your friends you will act silly and your friends will film you and next thing you know everybody knows what your naming your first born child, or that there is not in fact a shower in the men's room of Kay). But I want you most of all to know that even if you don't feel it right now (and I know that you don't), you are loved now, and you will continue to be loved immensely.
You have an amazing ten years in front of you. To be honest, I kind of envy you. It sucks now, but it will get better. I promise you. You have so much to look forward to. You are strong and you with help from your family and friends and by the grace of God, you will be able to withstand any shit that life throws out.
So buckle in and enjoy the ride. It's gonna be pretty awesome.
Sincerely,
Ian C. Urriola
